Life has Changed Episode 3
by Darkfire Galaxy
Summary: Sequel to Episode 2. Max returns to Arcadia Bay after going through hell and back in the desert. But is everything truly normal again? If you haven't read It all has to End, Episode 1 and Episode 2, go back and read them or you won't understand what's happening.
1. Chapter 1: Reunions

Life has Changed

Episode 3

Chapter 1

The girl's day was going badly. First there had been trouble with Principle Wells when she bumped into him in the shop on the beer run. That had caused her to drop the entire case of beer she was carrying which they'd then made her pay for on top of the case she got to replace it, and to top it all off her mother was on the phone lecturing her about how late she was. Apparently everyone at the house was angry with her. Just then, she spotted someone she knew sitting in his car across the road and decided to have some fun.

"Can you tell them I'll be there sharply at 'go screw yourself' o'clock?" she asked. "Thanks Mum. Bye. I love you." She cut the phone off before her mum even had chance to reply. She pulled her truck up to the edge of the curb and got out. As she walked over, she took in the scene. The man had his passenger window wound down as a woman with probably the most out-of-proportion boobs she'd ever seen leaned into it.

' _Is it me, or are her boobs bigger than her body_?" she thought to herself. ' _It's the wonder she doesn't break her ribs_! _Those have to be HH at least_! Not letting that deter her, she neared the car and tapped on the driver's side window. The man in the car wound the window down as she leaned through.

"I think you need to clear off, honey!" the other woman said sharply to her as she grabbed a penknife from her belt loop.

"Actually, I think you're the one that needs to clear off." The girl reached into her back pocket and pulled a Smith and Wesson Airweight out. She held it up for everyone to see, causing the woman to realise she was hopelessly outgunned. She pulled her head out from the passenger window and strutted off.

"What do you want?" the man asked, barely suppressing a groan.

"I just felt that we didn't get to know each other properly last time we met." The girl looked down to see his wallet sticking out of his pocket. "That's a really nice piece there. Can I have a look?" The man went to block her but she was having none of it. "You don't have to pass it to me, I can get it myself." She reached down and grabbed it from his pocket before opening it. "Wow, this is real leather." She nodded in admiration. "If it weren't for your cocaine sales, you'd never manage to afford this."

"Please don't..." The man's begging fell on deaf ears as she opened his wallet.

"Oh Ted, for a second I was worried you actually didn't have a wife and kids. That would have been no fun, would it?" the girl asked rhetorically. "What's your wife's name?"

"You don't need to..."

"What's her name, Ted?" the girl asked; a harder edge to her voice.

"Her name's Anna." Ted looked ready to burst into tears.

"Do you have a phone I can check the time on?" the girl asked. "Mine ran out of battery as I was driving." Ted pulled his phone out and went to read the time out for her.

"It's..."

"Oh, come on; I want to see this." The girl snatched his phone from his hand and started scrolling through his speed dial. Ted went to snatch the phone back, only for her to grab his wrist and wrench it around viciously. "You really don't want to do that!" she advised as the phone started ringing. "Hi, is that Anna?" she asked. "Yeah, this is Chloe Price... ... No, I'm not a cop. I just thought you should know that I've just caught your husband with a known prostitute who also has a reputation for cocaine dealing. ... ... Yes, they were at least HH. Oh, so this isn't the first time then?" Ted cried out in pain as Chloe wrenched his wrist further.

"Anna, she's lying!" he screamed.

"Yeah, that's him now." Chloe continued, ignoring Ted's screams completely. "He's crying because I'm breaking his hand. ... What was that, babe? I didn't catch that." Chloe took the phone away from her ear with an evil look in her eyes. "She says to do it harder." With that, she slammed Ted's wrist into the car window frame before jumping up and landing on it in a sitting position. The sudden pressure was too much for Ted's wrist, which spontaneously shattered. "You need to trust your instincts, Anna." Chloe told her. "He's no good for you."

"Stop poisoning my wife with lies, you flat-chested-" Chloe reached in and slapped him before he got chance to finish.

"No, that's not a problem, Anna." Chloe continued. "I'll make sure he can't call you eighty times to get you back. Okay, I'll catch you later then." With that, Chloe hung up and ripped the battery out of Ted's phone before dropping it down the drain at the end of the curb.

"Do you know what a mistake you just made?" Ted was red in the face from pain and fury.

"She's burning all your stuff tonight." Chloe said, brushing off the threat as if it were nothing. She was about to return to her pickup truck when she noticed a damaged white Peugeot pull in. Through the windscreen, she could see the driver. She couldn't believe it at first. Only one thought registered in her mind.

' _Who the hell is that_?'

Chloe ran across the road to where the car was parked up. As she watched, a figure stepped out from the car and brushed golden sand from her clothes. Chloe had never seen clothes like those before. They were bright red and seemed heavily built. The girl who'd been driving the car also pulled off a pair of goggles and threw them onto the back seat. It was only as she turned around slightly that Chloe recognised her.

"Max, is that you?" Max jolted at the sound of her own name. In a flash, she recognised the voice who'd said it? She turned around to see the blue haired girl that she loved so much. Chloe ran over and wrapped her in a bone crushing hug.

"It's so good to be back." Max muttered before suddenly bursting into tears.

"You've been gone for ages!" Chloe said. "You just vanished without a trace. Rachel said you were off to screw around with time without us."

"Okay, there's so much we need to catch up on." Max rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter though. There'll be time later." Just then, Chloe sharply let go of her.

"Okay, why the hell do you stink of wet horses?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, I probably need a shower." Max realised. "While I was 'away', a nice family took me in and let me rest up at their place. While I was there, a sandstorm hit the house. It ended up exploding and two of the family members didn't make it. We spent the next two nights sleeping in the stables with the horses since it was the only roof we had."

"It sounds like you've been through hell." Chloe muttered. "Come on back to my place. We're just about to have dinner. You can get some food in you and get a shower. Probably not in that order though."

"I take it I really stink." Max guessed.

"You don't out-and-out reek, but I wouldn't walk through a shop like that." Chloe replied. "Come on, I'll take you back."

"Okay, I'll follow you." Max replied, going to get back into her car.

"You think that relic can last the distance?" Chloe teased.

"Dom fixed it up." Max told her. "It got me this far."

"Who the hell is Dom?" Chloe asked.

"I'll tell you later." Max said. "For now, lead the way."

"Okay, let's go then." Chloe ran back to her truck and climbed in. She pulled away from where she was parked and Max followed her. They moved onto the main stretch of road and headed in the direction of Chloe's house. Max could swear she could already smell Joyce's cooking.

As they neared the house, Max noticed a load of balloons and banners all over the place. Chloe pulled up in the driveway before jumping out and finding a free spot for Max to park. Max got out and took in the scene in front of her.

"What's with all the banners?" she asked.

"Oh, I meant to tell you." Chloe slapped her hand against her forehead and did a dramatic eye-roll. "Rachel and I are celebrating our one year anniversary together. Mum got everyone over for dinner to celebrate." Max was about to reply when Chloe's phone went off.

" _Chloe Price, where are you_?" Joyce demanded. Max tried her best not to burst out laughing.

"It's taken care of, Mum." Chloe assured her. "I got the beer plus one. We're outside now."

" _Wait, what's the_ 'plus one' _bit_?" Joyce asked. " _You were only getting beer_."

"Just trust me." Chloe said before hanging up. "Come on, Max. Let's drop the beer off then go and get you cleaned up." Chloe led Max round the side of the house into the back garden. She dropped the case of beer on the table as Joyce stormed over.

"Well, it's about damn time, Chloe. We were worried sick!" she scolded before noticing who was with her. "Max, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me." Max nodded.

"What the hell have you been doing all this time?" Joyce asked.

"It's a very long story." Max said. "Um, do you mind if I use your shower? I've been driving for the last eight hours and before that there was a hilarious issue with some horses."

"You can, by all means." Joyce replied. You know where it is, and Chloe and Rachel can lend you some clothes if you need me to wash those ones."

"Thanks, that's really kind of you."

"Let's not have any of that, Max." Joyce said, brushing off the gratitude. "We're happy to have you back in one piece. We were so worried about you while you were gone."

"That's funny; I was worried about everyone here." Max replied.

"Well then, I guess we're all left happy." Joyce leaned over and called out to a girl who was helping David secure a gigantic sun umbrella at the bottom of the garden. "Rachel, come on over and say hello! Max is back!"

"What?" Rachel turned around to see Max standing there. Instantly, she let go of the parasol and ran over. They heard David cry out in alarm as the mild breeze picked up the gigantic umbrella and threatened to take it over the back fence and him with it. Rachel debated going back to help, but then decided that she couldn't be bothered and Max was more important.

"How are you doing, Max?" she asked as she walked over. Max couldn't help but laugh as David was dragged over the fence while trying to keep hold of the umbrella and Rachel ignored it as though nothing was happening.

"I'm good, thanks." Max replied once she'd composed herself.

"Rachel, Max is about to go and clean up a bit, so do you mind lending her some of your clothes?" Chloe asked. "You're more her size."

"I'll grab some and leave them by the bathroom door for you." Rachel nodded.

"Okay then, I'll just head up." Max said.

"I'll grab you a spare towel from the airing cupboard." Chloe added as she started to walk inside. Max followed her upstairs and waited outside the bathroom for Chloe to get back with the towel. After a split second, she reappeared from the back room and threw a bright pink towel to Max.

"Thanks, Chloe." Max grinned as her thoughts turned to the hot shower she was about to dive into.

"Don't even think of coming out of there until all that horse stink is _gone_!" Chloe nudged Max playfully. "The guests are going to start arriving soon. Actually, we're only really having Rachel's family over. Don't worry about being fashionably late. Those saps will forgive anything. I swear to god, we got so high at Rachel's once and it was right in front of them. They just don't give a damn."

"I take it they're quite placid then?" Max opened the door and went to step into the bathroom. "By the way, is there any shampoo for the guests or does it not matter?"

"You can use mine." Chloe shrugged. "You can't miss it. It's the neon blue bottle. I swear to god, it makes your hair smell so nice..."

"How did I know you'd have the blue one?" Max rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Just go and get the horse crap off you." Chloe practically shoved Max into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Once Max was alone, she took a moment to breathe in the familiar scents that she remembered as a kid. It was good to be back.

 **Author's Note: I'm so sorry this took so long. A collage accident and illness caused everything to be delayed and I am nowhere near as far into writing this up as I hoped to be. This will be either the last or second-to-last episode of this series, but if it does turn out to be the last I will aim to make it an especially long one to make it memorable. If anyone is confused by the transition between episodes 2 and 3, Chapter Four fills in the blanks. Everything will be explained, so don't worry. If you have any questions after that, you can PM me or review.**


	2. Chapter 2: Cleaning Up

Chapter 2

Max stood in the shower, relishing the feeling of the hot water running over her. It was amazing how much she'd missed it while she was away from Arcadia.

"Your clothes are by the door." Rachel's voice drifted through the door, just about registering in Max's conscience.

"Thanks, Rachel." Max called back before grabbing Chloe's shampoo. She let some run into her hands before slathering it on her hair and rubbing it in. As she was doing that, the bottle slipped out of her hands. She managed to move her foot back before she suffered three broken toes, but the bottle split open on the floor of the bathtub. Bright blue liquid went everywhere as she bent her head back to wash the shampoo out of her eyes so she could examine the damage.

"Max, is everything okay in there?" Rachel called through the door.

"Yeah, I dropped Chloe's shampoo." Max replied, annoyance plain in her voice. "It's okay though, I can just rewind." Max extended her hand and watched as the shampoo bottle flew into her hand as all the shampoo slid back into the bottle. The split healed itself and Max put it on the shelf she got it from to avoid a repeat.

"Okay, so what you're saying is that I won't remember any of this in a few seconds?" Rachel confirmed. Max noticed something odd just then.

"Hang on, I just rewound. You already shouldn't remember!" she called back. Just then, her mind cast itself back to the petrol pump. When she rewound time, the pump's numbers reset to zero so that there was no record of her putting fuel in the car. But that meant that Dom should have come back outside and resumed his original position. Instead, he'd stayed inside like he had a choice in the matter. And come to think of it, Rae had acknowledged what she'd done. Since she wasn't in contact with Rae, she should have been rewound too. She shouldn't have seen a thing.

"Max, what are you saying?" Rachel asked.

"I think I can rewind individual objects now!" Max was equal parts amazed and freaked out. While this opened up so many opportunities, it was also so much more dangerous. If she did even one thing wrong, she could potentially cause a paradox and obliterate time.

"Max, that's so cool!" Rachel was clearly excited.

"No, this is dangerous." Max replied. "We'll talk about it in a second. I'm just getting out."

"Okay. I'm just going to help Chloe and Joyce with the food." Max heard Rachel start to go down the stairs. She turned off the shower and got out before moving across to the door. She opened it a crack and leaned out to look for the clothes. She spotted them in a folded pile by the bathroom door. She leaned out even more, managing to grab them and straighten up. As she did, she looked up to see David standing there shielding his eyes. His face was red with embarrassment. Max screamed before ducking back inside the bathroom and slamming the door.

"Max, I'm so sorry..."

"What the hell are you doing?" Max shouted at him.

"I'm sorry." David repeated. "I had to go up and change my jeans after I got dragged over the fence. They got torn to shreds because no one helped me."

"Okay, we'll talk about this later." Max snapped as she quickly put some underwear on in case someone decided to try and rush inside to use the loo.

"By the way, I fixed the door bolt." David called through the door. Max quickly looked up to see the almost new looking bolt on the door. She slid it across and breathed a sigh of relief. She threw the rest of the clothes on before unlocking the door and leaving. Just as she stepped out into the hallway, she noticed something. She was wearing the exact same clothes as she'd worn when she and Chloe broke into Blackwell and her clothes ended up stinking too badly of chlorine to wear. She couldn't help but wonder if that had actually happened in this reality.

She also wondered how this reality even existed. When she fought against Jefferson, she died. She literally felt death's embrace for the second time. That was one of the answers she hoped to find out in the desert, but she'd found nothing. Granted, she wasn't there for very long, but even if she wasn't planning to leave, she would have had to anyway after the house exploded. That plan literally blew up in her face, with Chen, Rae and Ellie paying the price. Max couldn't help but wonder what it would take for her to just live in piece with Chloe. Of course, the fact that Rachel was there was a bonus, but Max's priority was always Chloe. She was why this whole time-travel fiasco started, and Max had a sneaking suspicion she would be the reason it would end as well.


	3. Chapter 3: Stories

Chapter 3

"You look great!" Chloe ran over as Max stepped outside. Rachel joined her.

"You know, Chloe was right." Rachel nodded. "You really can pull off my look."

"Still, there's no way you'd manage mine." Chloe said as Joyce brought out some food and put it on the table outside.

"You know, I never went through a 'dying my hair blue' phase." Max mused. "Maybe it's time."

"I honestly don't think that would suit you too well." Chloe tipped her head to one side as she studied Max closely. "Maybe if you just did a bit at the front like I had once? That was all Mum let me do when I first told her I was doing it. Sometimes I look back at those photos and think it suited me better than the fully blue hair I have now."

"To be honest Chloe, it doesn't matter to me how either of us looks provided we stay the same as people." Max said.

"That's a bit deep, isn't it?" Rachel remarked.

"Trust me, Rachel; I've seen things in that desert that could turn your hair white." Max practically shivered as the memories replayed in her head. "That kind of thing makes you grow up quick."

"Well, you can tell us all about it after dinner." Chloe went and sat at the table before taking her phone out. After seeing that she had no new messages, she stuffed her phone back in her pocket with an irritated expression on her face.

"Is she okay?" Max asked Rachel.

"She's fine." Rachel replied. "She's waiting on a package with what's supposed to be my anniversary present in it. She deliberately ordered it yesterday on one-day delivery so it would get here today. She's getting worried now because it's past mid-day and it's still not arrived."

"Do you know what it is?" Max asked.

"Why would I?" Rachel replied. "You know how secretive she gets about presents."

"Yeah, but I wondered if it was something you'd specifically asked for." Max elaborated.

"No, I just left that up to her good judgement." Rachel grinned.

"Now I'm slightly scared as to what it might be." Max muttered. Rachel burst out laughing. "Okay, I'm going to help Joyce with setting the food out." Max went to go back inside before a thought crossed her mind. "By the way: happy anniversary."

"Thanks Max." Rachel went and sat next to Chloe at the table. Max noticed Chloe loop an arm around her and lean in slightly. For some reason, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. Shaking the bizarre emotion off, she stepped inside and found Joyce cooking over several pans at once. Max wondered how she was able to do that without an extra set of arms.

"Do you need a hand, Joyce?" she asked. Joyce turned round to see Max standing behind her.

"Oh, you are such a sweetheart." Joyce said appreciatively. "You were always much more helpful than Chloe."

"I think Chloe's allowed a day off on a day like this." Max replied. Despite everything, she couldn't keep the bitter edge out of her voice.

"Max Caulfield, are you jealous of Rachel Amber for dating Chloe?" Joyce said in a teasing voice.

"No, I'm not four years old." Max shrugged. "I guess it's just a surprise. They started dating before I left and I thought it would be over fairly quickly. The next thing you know, here's Chloe who's never had a steady relationship in her life celebrating her one-year relationship anniversary."

"Life is strange like that, Max." Joyce nodded. "Hell, I couldn't believe Chloe was an adult until she announced she was moving out and asked for a crash-course in paying bills and taxes so she could have an easier life once she was in her own place."

"Wait... Chloe's moving out?" Max couldn't believe it.

"Actually, she's moved out already." Joyce grinned. "It was while you were away. Did she not tell you?"

"No, she didn't tell me much yet." Max said. "We're going to catch up properly after dinner. What I don't get though: when we bumped into each other, she said 'come to my place' and then brought me here. If she's moved out, wouldn't 'her place' be wherever she's living now?"

"Chloe does still call this her place from time to time." Joyce told her. "And it's true in a sense. There'll always be a part of her here. Who knows? Maybe she also thought you should take one big thing at a time? You've only just met up again and if it were me, I know a second groundbreaking thing immediately afterwards would make for a dangerously unsettled stomach."

"Trust me Joyce; I've had loads of groundbreaking stuff happen over the last few days." Max said. "I thought seeing Chloe again was just an end goal. I figured that getting back here would be the end of the journey, but it's only just beginning."

"You'll be surprised how something that seems so massive can feel so insignificant once you've achieved it." Joyce nodded. "I thought it was big when I married William. Then I got pregnant with Chloe and marriage suddenly seemed insignificant compared to childbirth. But as big a thing as actually giving birth to Chloe was, we had to raise her after that. That beat everything else until I lost William. After that, I had to take over as a single parent and... Well, we all know how that went."

"You did brilliantly by Chloe, Joyce." Max assured her. "Look at her now. She's got a place of her own, a beautiful girlfriend with hair I'd kill for and she's happy. Even if she and David had a rocky start, she's still happy to be here now. By the way, is David still a security guard at Blackwell?"

"Max, didn't you get Chloe's text?" Joyce asked. Without a word, Max reached into her bag and unceremoniously dumped the burned-out carcass of something on the side.

"That kind of happened to my phone not long after I left." Max lied. In truth, she had no idea how it got like that. "I had no way to send or receive texts or check Facebook. That also meant no YouTube, no iTunes, no Camera Porn to look at the vintage beauties, none of it. I didn't even have Google Maps."

"Wait... So how did you actually survive out there?" Joyce asked.

"I had my bank card but that was literally it." Max replied. "My parents put one-hundred dollars into my account once a week, and that was my survival money. That happened on any week I asked for it because I needed more. The problem came when my phone got fried. I had no way to contact them, so I was relying on free services. Actually, I loved it. It gave me a clear sense of who I am. I learned more about myself in the last god knows how long than I ever knew before." Max hated lying, but at least the last part was true. Dying twice and travelling through three different realities certainly took its toll.

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to tell us about it later on." Joyce said. "Now, if you'll be good enough to take the burgers out, the hot dogs are just coming."

"Okay, I'll come back for the hot dogs then." Max nodded, taking the plate with the burgers and walking outside.

"Okay, those look great." Chloe said, reaching over and taking one before they'd even hit the table.

"Of course they do. Your mother made them." David shrugged, sitting down at the end of the table. "We all know how good her cooking is." With that, he stretched back in the chair he was sitting in, pulled the cap he was wearing further over his face and drifted off into what seemed to be a contented sleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Realities

Chapter 4

David Madsen stood in a dark corridor that reminded him of Blackwell Academy. Why was he dreaming about Blackwell? That place was shut down because of the Prescotts. And how was he conscious enough to know this was a dream? Normally, dreams were so immersive that they made the person not even imagine that they were dreaming. But David was fully aware that this had to be a dream. Posters were slathered all over the walls. Each one featured a picture of a man holding a book. He'd never heard of them, much less seen them before. Why were all these posters of this person here?

As David pondered this, he heard the sound of footsteps in the distance. As they came closer, he braced himself to be ready for anything. Out of the darkness walked a man who looked identical to the person in the posters.

"Who are you?" David asked. As if this was the signal they'd all been waiting for, the posters started coming to life. As David watched with a horrified expression fixed his face, the copies of the man in the posters started clawing their way out. They shredded through the paper walls containing them as they all stepped into the corridor. By the time the last one had stepped into the corridor, the first one had reached David. He grabbed him roughly by the shoulders, causing a black fire to run down his arms and over David. The copies all joined in, trapping him down as David writhed in immense pain.

"Say hello to dear, sweet little Maxine for us, won't you?" one of them asked. "Actually, don't bother. We'll do it ourselves."

"Oh, god..."

"Really David, must you resort to such ostentatious verbiage?" another of the copies asked. "In no way do any of us fit the description of a god. 'Jefferson' will do just fine." The black flames encased David as he writhed and screamed. Suddenly his eyes flew open to the sun beating down on him. He sat up sharply, wondering where the hell he was. After a second, he realised he was back at home. But he couldn't quite remember... It was like his brain was misfiring.

"David, are you okay?" Joyce walked over, seeing the wild and panicked look in his eyes.

"It was just a bad dream." David shrugged, getting up and walking inside. He opened the fridge and rummaged around for a beer. He never usually touched the stuff after an incident when he was just about to come home from service. He got too tipsy and talked down to his CO. The beating he got put him in the hospital for three weeks, two of which saw him eating meals through a straw. He pulled a beer from the fridge and looked around, trying to find the bottle opener. Just then, the sound of shattering glass snapped him out of his reverie. He looked down to see blood running from his hand and the beer bottle in pieces on the floor. The neck must have shattered in his grip, causing the bottle to drop from his hand.

' _That bottle was as weak as Max_!' David thought to himself, before realising what he'd just thought. ' _Why did I think that_?' he wondered. As if speaking of the devil, she, Chloe and Rachel all walked in. They were gossiping about various things that had happened while Max was away, blissfully unaware of the mess David had just made. It irritated him no end. Yet he didn't know why.

"So, shall we head upstairs and get to the real talk?" Chloe grinned. The girls headed upstairs to Chloe's old room before sitting down. Max noticed the absence of her bed, as well as all of her other stuff. It was literally just a bare room. Chloe sat cross-legged on the floor. Max and Rachel joined her as she addressed the elephant in the room. "Okay, so you probably noticed that Rachel and I moved in together and got an apartment, so none of my stuff is here." Chloe stated the obvious.

"Yeah, Joyce mentioned it." Max shrugged. "I think it's great that you both took that step."

"Okay, so tell us everything that happened while you were away." Rachel said to Max.

"That's what we need to talk about." Max took a deep breath. "Okay, so the first thing I remember is being dropped into the desert..."

"Hang on; you said that was the last place you went to." Chloe spotted the plot hole in Max's story.

"Yeah, I'll get to that." Max nodded. "First off, does the name Mark Jefferson sound familiar to either of you?" Chloe and Rachel swapped confused looks.

"No, that name doesn't ring a bell." Rachel shrugged. Max breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay then, here we go..." Max slowly walked them through everything. How she died in her original reality, created a new one where Rachel was still alive, died in that reality and ended up in the desert. Explaining everything in a nutshell took about three quarters of an hour, with Chloe and Rachel looking genuinely scared.

"Max... I don't know what to..." Chloe was at a loss for words.

"You guys believe me, right?" Max asked.

"Of course we believe you, Max." Chloe assured her. "It's just... You're saying you're not the Max we know, you're from a totally different reality?"

"I'm still the Max you know, Chloe." Max said. "There is absolutely nothing different about me. But yes, I'm from a different reality. Somehow when I died fighting Jefferson, my consciousness was transferred into the Max in this reality who at that present second was in the desert. The question is now, what actually happened here?"

"Well for a start, there was a period where you were really ill." Chloe began.

"Did I end up in hospital?" Max asked.

"No, but my Uncle Ian came and checked on you." Chloe told her. You were getting bad migraines and occasionally throwing up, but he didn't see the need for a hospital. He just blamed it on stress since Blackwell got shut down."

"Wait... Blackwell got shut down?" Max mentally flashed back to the conversation with Joyce. She'd mentioned something about a text from Chloe.

"Didn't you get my message?" Chloe asked.

"When I was dropped into the desert, my phone was just a burned out husk." Max told her. "I told Joyce that it happened shortly after I left, but I actually have no clue."

"You know, you really had Chloe worried when you stopped answering her texts." Rachel grinned.

"I can't imagine what must have been going through your mind." Max laughed.

"Well, considering you fell out of contact so suddenly I don't think it was too unreasonable to think you were dead." Chloe shrugged.

"Chloe, I've died twice now." Max said seriously. "Like Ellie said, I'd rather not make it third time unlucky." Max instantly felt a hit of sadness at the mention of Ellie's name.

"Was Ellie one of the ones you said...?"

"Yeah, she didn't make it." Max felt ready to burst into tears. Suddenly, she felt Chloe's arms around her. Rachel joined in as well as Max hugged them both closer.

"So, did you get any great photos while you were away?" Chloe asked.

"I only remember getting this one." Max reached into the pocket of her bag that she kept her photos in. She pulled out the one she took of the desert sand glowing like a rainbow. Chloe and Rachel couldn't help but look amazed.

"Okay, that's just awesome." Chloe nodded.

"How did you manage to get that?" Rachel asked.

"When I was in the desert, Dom and Rae showed me this great view." Max told them. "At a certain time each day, the sun moves into perfect position to make the sand glow all sorts of different colours."

"I'm putting that view on my bucket list." Rachel grinned.

"You have a bucket list?" Chloe looked over in surprise.

"You didn't know?" Rachel met her gaze. "I thought I told you." She reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a red book. She turned to the back page and opened it out. Taped into the back page were about three sheets of paper which rolled out when she turned it sideways. The top one said 'Bucket List' and said list took up the rest of all three pages.

"You clearly have a lot you want to do." Max couldn't believe the size of the list.

"Life is too short not to appreciate." Rachel shrugged. I've done a few things on it already, but I'm just waiting for the day I get that surge of inspiration to do the rest."

"So, what sort of stuff have you got on there?" Max asked, looking the list over. There were several things Max saw that would be easy to do. Some of them were quite difficult like 'Smuggle a case of weed through airport customs undetected', but most of them Max felt would be quite simple such as 'Compete in a driving contest against Chloe and one other'.

"What about that one?" Max asked, pointing to it. "We could do that one easily."

"I was actually meaning to ask Chloe about doing that one." Rachel shrugged. Chloe leaned over and looked at the one Max was pointing out.

"Okay, I instantly have so many ideas." Chloe had a visibly eager expression on her face. Grinning, she turned to Rachel. "If you want a driving contest, we'll give you one. First thing tomorrow, I'm going to raid a ninety-nine cent store."

"What are you raiding a dollar store for?" Max asked, curious.

"You'll see tomorrow night." Chloe winked. "Also, I might have a word with David, see if he can't call in a favour and get us a place to do this." Without even thinking, Chloe got up and headed downstairs. David visibly groaned as Chloe approached.

"What is it, Chloe?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you can help me with something." Chloe put on her best sweet-and-innocent face that wouldn't fool a two year old. "Rachel wants to have a driving contest with Max and I. I was wondering if you could maybe give me a hand finding a place to do it."

"Well, I know a military training ground somewhere near here." David shrugged. If I tell the CO that I'm ex forces and I'm teaching my stepdaughter's girlfriend to drive, that's sure to get us the place. It just means that Rachel's going to have to put L plates on her car and I'll ride up with her. I'll do it under the condition you all let me be the referee." Chloe was surprised. David helping her get somewhere had been a long shot. She never imagined that he'd actually want to take part in some way.

"That would be great." Chloe couldn't keep the smile off her face. Neither could David. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that it was going to be a good day.

 **Author's Note: Okay, I'm so sorry this has taken so long. College has been hell. If I'm honest, I'm rapidly considering other options. I get that being a student doing a foundation degree is difficult but it shouldn't be to the point that literally everything makes you unhappy. Anyway, I'm going to try and get back into writing this since I haven't worked on it recently and this upload takes me below what I call the 'safety zone'. Basically, I write a few chapters well in advance so that I can upload as frequently as possible and once it's all written I can upload at my own pace.**

 **Hope everyone is doing okay and enjoying the story so far. Please feel free to leave a review. Feedback is appreciated. Thanks to all of you who stuck with me over my unplanned and slightly extended break.**


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